1. Field of the Invention
This invention is in the field of automated clothing and fashion recommendation software
2. Description of the Related Art
Fashion—choice of what types of clothing to wear, and what not to wear, is extremely important in our society and indeed in most societies throughout time. An individual's choice of clothing allows others to almost instantly determine an individual's social status, outlook on life, and identification with certain socially important groups. Clothing choices are particularly important to young adults, who often spend much time and energy trying to both establish their individual uniqueness, while at the same time trying to also show what social group and values the young adult identifies with. The consequences of making wrong clothing choices for a given event and situation can often be very distressing.
As a result, the fashion industry is a very large industry, employing over 4 million people in the US alone, and in the US about 250 billion dollars a year are spent on fashion purchases.
Some individuals may be blessed with a high innate sense of fashion and style. However many other individuals may have less innate fashion sense or confidence, but still may wish to dress well for various occasions. As a result, numerous fashion magazines and websites exist, and fashion is often a frequent topic of discussion among friends. Further, with the proliferation of smartphone technology, various types of fashion “apps” are now available for download.
For example, a search for “fashion” apps on the Apple App store shows that various applications are available, including “Social Girl” by Crowdstar Inc., “Fashion Design World”, by nanobitssoftware.com, “Kim Kardashian Hollywood”, by Glu Games, Inc., “Forever 21”, by Forever 21, Inc., and others. However such games are often more fantasy oriented, and less oriented towards helping to solve practical problems of an individual should actually wear, with their existing wardrobe, in a real world environment.